Short Summary

South Vietnamese Army units were fighting on the southeastern edge of Quang Tri City on Monday (July 10) in the weeks-old bid to wrest the provincial capital from North Vietnamese control, and managed to penetrate some suburbs.

Description

1.
Quang Tri millstone PAN TO tanks
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2.
Damaged tanks (3 shots)
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3.
Air strikes
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4.
Smoke from explosions
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5.
Airstrike
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6.
Tanks moving up
0.46

7.
Troops moving into town (2 shots)
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Damaged church (2 shots)
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Damaged houses
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Refugees along road (2 shots)
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Initials OS/2149 OS/2211

Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved

Background: South Vietnamese Army units were fighting on the southeastern edge of Quang Tri City on Monday (July 10) in the weeks-old bid to wrest the provincial capital from North Vietnamese control, and managed to penetrate some suburbs.

But the fight was not an easy one. North Vietnamese troops, supported by artillery, replied with a counter-attack against the South vietnamese paratroopers supported by Marines, tanks, and United States air strikes. Fighting raged on several fronts around the outskirts -- both in front of and behind South Vietnamese positions. North Vietnamese and Viet Cong losses in the fighting, meanwhile, were reported by the South Vietnamese High Command to be running at about three thousand a week. South Vietnamese losses were reported at about 600 a week.

Within three days of the shooting of this film on Monday (July 10) the fighting had intensified, and on Thursday (July 13) the position was till not clear.

SYNOPSIS: In the continuing battle for Quang Tri City in South Vietnam, Government troops supported by tanks and United States air strikes were on Monday pushing into the provincial capital's southeastern edges.

The battle for the city had been in progress for some weeks. It was occupied by the North Vietnamese in May, and by Monday tens of thousands of troops from both sides were engaged in the fight. The North Vietnamese were fighting with infantry and artillery -- the main resistance to the South Vietnamese attack -- while the South Vietnamese were attacking with paratroopers, Marines, tanks and air strikes. The South Vietnamese High Command reported North Vietnamese and Viet Cong losses to be running at about three thousand dead a week, against government losses of about six hundred.

Although the fighting intensified in the days following this film, refugees were able to leave some quarters of the city. Many of them were wounded in the fighting -- some when the North Vietnamese first took the city in May; others in the recent battles.

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